EVENTS

May 7, 2025 - May 8, 2025

Join us for a two-day business spark conference presented by Designhounds Talks hosted in collaboration with the MART Chicago and concurrent with the MART Wine + Design event. The conference will be focused on re-establishing an emotional connection between business owners and their businesses, offering tools and narratives designed to reignite the love for what we do and minimize the power of worry and uncertainty in our minds.

These are exhausting times regardless of where we stand politically or philosophically and whether or not our business flourishes at the moment. Overwhelm and work fatigue get ahold of the best of us even at the best of times and now the challenges associated with the industry we love and work in become magnified especially for creative thinkers.

The result can be templated creative work – never a good idea – and a need to “play it safe” and both often go hand-in- hand with dreading the next work day and longing for Friday to hurry up and get here already. Wishing days away is not a good way to live life and short of changing direction altogether and moving to a remote island to live as a hermit – the question is, how can we find that spark again, the motivation and excitement we felt for the work we do (remember the first time you opened the box of brand new business cards?) because it is that spark that drives us through rough times.

Presenters include:

Author, speaker, podcast host Luann Nigara, A Well Designed Business

Author, speaker, business coach Jane Horan, The Horan Group

Non-profit leader and retreat facilitator Reverend Kyle Gott

Designhounds Community Founder, Veronika Miller